Plants From Scratch

This is the first in a series of articles designed to take you from seed catalog to hardened off transplants in complete detail. Those of you who are seasoned gardeners may find parts of this series tedious, but bear with me. The articles are meant to educate both the novice and the experienced gardener. When I first began my Master Gardener classes I thought I had little to learn. I was soon amazed at what I didn't know and delighted by what was taught.

Each spring home gardeners tootle down to their local garden centers and spend a small fortune on bedding plants. What a waste of money when starting your own from seed is so easy. Okay, so you don't have a greenhouse; neither do I and I grow hundreds of plants each year.

There are many reasons besides saving money for starting your own plants, but one of the most important is variety. Can you find Rouge d'Hiver lettuce, Nardello pepper, or Brandywine tomato at your local garden center? Probably not. These are wonderful heirloom varieties usually available only by seed. Have you ever grown onions from seeds rather than sets? It's the only way to cultivate your own Vidalia type onions. Starting your own bedding plants from scratch is easy, rewarding and cost-effective. All you need is seeds, soil, and patience. Oh, and a few tricks of the trade

Ordering Your Seed

Before you can begin planting you need the seeds to plant. This usually starts with seed catalogues. I receive a three-foot high stack of seed catalogues each spring and end up ordering from two or three old standbys. The reasons are price, variety, and shipping charges.

That last one's a biggie. Some outfits want to charge you as much as $5 on orders under $10. That's ridiculous for seeds. They just aren't that heavy. Many companies charge a low flat rate, regardless of what you order.

Another consideration when ordering seed is price. The lowest price is not always the best deal. Check the size of the seed packets. You may have to dig for this information. Often suppliers list the packet size in the category headings rather than the variety descriptions. Some list size by ounces, others by number of seeds in the packet. Watch out for the latter, it's especially true for expensive perennial seeds. Often packets come with only four or five seeds in them.

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